Full Version: Agape (Spiritual and Selfless) Love
+Franziska+, in the spirit of finding the things we hold in common, are you, like St. John, saying that God is love, the highest good? If so, I agree with you: GØD is AGAPE.
QUOTE(Lindsay @ Nov 28, 2006, 02:54 PM) 
+Franziska+, in the spirit of finding the things we hold in common, are you, like St. John, saying that God is love, the highest good? If so, I agree with you: GØD is AGAPE.
Your relationship with GØD may be one of agape, but then is the love that I share with my brother GØD? It is clearly unconditional love, but I would say that GØD and agape are different entities. I find that while love alone is a powerful entity, the idea of GØD should transend love alone (if not, then GØD would be interchangeable with agape?).
I find God to be the highest good which I hold, the bible states that "God is Love" which I consider a healthy perspective to embrace God as love itself. I myself embrace Gods love as, and finding it to be agape. "We love because God first loved us" I add this perspective to my mere understanding of God representing the universal oneness.
From the Aquarian Gospel
Before creation was, the Christ walked with the Father God and Mother God in Akasha.
"The Christ is son, the only son begotten by Almighty God, the God of Force and God omniscient, God of thought; and Christ is God, the God of Love.
"Without the Christ there was no light. Through Christ all life was manifest; and so through him all things were done, and naught was done in forming worlds or peopling worlds without the Christ.
"Christ is the Logos of Infinities and through the word alone are Thought and Force made manifest.
"The Son is called the Christ, because the Son, the Love, the universal Love, was set apart, ordained to be creator, Lord, preserver and redeemer of all things, of everything that is, or evermore will be.
"Through Christ, the protoplast, the earth, the plant, the beast, the man, the angel and the cherubim took up their stations on their planes of life.
"Through Christ they are preserved and if they fall it is the Christ who lifts them up; and if they sell themselves to sin the Christ redeems.
"Now Christ, the universal Love, pervades all spaces of infinity, and so there is no end to love.
"From the great heart of Love unnumbered spirits were sent forth to demonstrate the height, the depth, the width, the boundlessness of Love.
"To every world and star and moon and sun a master spirit of this Love divine was sent; and all were full anointed with the oil of helpfulness, and each became a Christ.
"All glorious in his majesty is Christ, who spread the pure white robe of Love o'er all the planes of earth--The Christ of earth, its heaven, its graves.
"In course of time the protoplast, the earth, the plant, the beast, the man sold out their birthrights unto sin; but Christ was present to redeem.
"Hid in the holiest place in all infinities is locked the scroll that bears the record of the purposes of God, the Triune God, and there we read:
"Perfection is the ultimate of life. A seed is perfect in its embryotic life, but it is destined to unfold, to grow.
"Into the soil of every plane these seeds, which were the Thoughts of God, were cast-the seeds of protoplast, of earth, of plant, of beast, of man, of angel and of cherubim, and they who sowed the seeds, through Christ, ordained that they should grow, and should return at last, by effort of unnumbered years, to the great granary of thought, and each be a perfection of its kind.
"And in the boundless blessedness of Love the man was made the Lord of protoplast of earth, of plant, of beast; and Christ proclaimed: Man shall have full dominion over everything that is upon these planes of life; and it was so.
"And he who gave the lordship unto man declared that he must rule by Love.
"But men grew cruel and they lost their power to rule, and protoplast, and earth, and plant and beast became at enmity with man; he lost his heritage; but Christ was present to redeem.
"But man had lost his consciousness of right; he could no longer comprehend the boundlessness of Love; he could see naught but self, and things of self; but Christ was there to seek the lost and save.
"So that he might be close to man in all the ways of life, that man might comprehend the mighty spirit of the Love, the Christ of earth made manifest to human eyes and ears by taking his abode in some pure person, well prepared by many lives to be a fit abiding place of Love.
"Thus Christ made manifest Love's power to save; but, men forgot so soon, and so Christ must manifest again, and then again.
"And ever since man took his place in form of flesh the Christ has been manifest in flesh at first of every age."
5 What relationship existed between Jesus of Nazareth an the Christ? Orthodox Christian ecclesiastics tell us that Jesus of Nazareth and the Christ were one; that the true name of this remarkable person was Jesus Christ. They tell us that this man of Galilee was the very eternal God clothed in flesh of man that men might see his glory. Of course this
p. 9
doctrine is wholly at variance with the teachings of Jesus himself and of his apostles. The Aquarian Masters in council have formulated an answer to this question that so well covers all the information required that we give it in full:
"Jesus was an ideal Jew, born in Bethlehem of Judea. His mother was a beautiful Jewish girl named Mary. As a child Jesus differed but little from other children only that in past lives be had overcome carnal propensities to such an extent that he could be tempted like others and not yield. Paul was right when to the Hebrews he said: 'He was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.'--Hebrews 4:15.
Jesus suffered as other men suffer, and was made perfect through suffering; for this is the only way to perfection. His life was an example of attainment by the way of crosses and cruel treatment. Paul was right again when he said: 'It became him, for whom are all things and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons into glory to make the captain of their salvation perfect through suffering.'--Hebrews 2:10.
"In many respects Jesus was a remarkable child, for by ages of strenuous preparation he was qualified to be an avatar, a saviour of the world, and from childhood he was endowed with superior wisdom and was conscious of the fact that he was competent to lead the race into the higher ways of spiritual living. But he was conscious also of the fact that he must attain the mastery by trials, buffetings, temptations and sufferings. And all his life was spent in attaining. After his death, burial and resurrection he appeared in materialised form before the Silent Brothers in the temple of Heliopolis, in Egypt, and said:
"'My human life was wholly given to bring my will to tune with the deific will; when this was done my earth-tasks all were done.
"'You know that all my life was one great drama for the sons of men; a pattern for the sons of men. I lived to show the possibilities of man.
"'What I have done all men can do, and what I am all men shall be.'"--Aquarian Gospel 178:43, 46.
"Jesus was the name of the man and it was the only appropriate name for this kind of a man. The word means Saviour, and Jesus was in more senses than one a saviour.
The word Christ means "the anointed one," and then it is an official title. It means, The Master of Love. When we say "Jesus the Christ" we refer to the man and to his office; just as we do when we say Edward, the King, or Lincoln, the President. Edward was not always King, and Lincoln was not always President, and Jesus was not always Christ. Jesus won his Christship by a strenuous life, and in the Aquarian Gospel, chapter 65, we have a record of the events of his christing, or receiving the degree Christ. Here is where he was coronated by the highest earth authorities as the Christ-King; properly speaking, 'The Master of Love'; and after this was done he entered at once upon his Judean and Galilean ministry.
"We recognise the facts that Jesus was man and that Christ was God, so that in very truth Jesus the Christ was the God-man of the ages."
The Nazarene's Testimony. Jesus himself made the matter clear. Once when he was speaking to a congregation in Bethany the people called him King and he stood forth and said:
"'I am not sent to sit upon a throne to rule as Cæsar rules; and you may tell the ruler of the Jews that I am not a claimant for his throne.
"'Men call me Christ, and God has recognised the name; but Christ is not a man. The Christ is universal Love, and Love is King.
"'This Jesus is but man who has been fitted by temptations overcome, by trials multiform, to be the temple through which the Christ can manifest to men.
"'Then hear, you men of Israel, hear I Look not upon the flesh; it is not king. Look to the Christ within who shall be formed in every one of you, as he is formed in me.
"'When you have purified your hearts by faith, the king will enter in and you will see his face.'"--Aquarian Gospel 68:10-14.
p. 10
Surely this question has been answered. Jesus was man; Christ was Divine Love-the Love of God, and after thirty years of strenuous life the man had made his body fit to be the temple of the holy breath and Love took full possession, and John well said when he declared:
"'And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld the glory of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.'"
In the Triune nature of God represented sybolically by the cross, God the Father is the vertical staff, the unmanifest absolute nature of God which never changes and is always stable in nature.
God the Mother the manifest is represented by the horizontal moving outward from the stable nature of stillness and God the Son is the nature of spirit which lives both in the unmanifest and in the manifest and is the part of God that is experienced. It is the unconditional nature of god that supports all experiences of nature and God within nature. The thread that connects life to the unmanifest, the thread that connects all life to itself.
Love, christed love is not a feeling tho it can be sensed through feelings of any kind.
Christed love is not bound to circumstance, it is beyond circumstance, it is beyond any single example or collection of examples, it is immortal and not bound by mortality and the attachments to scenarios interpreted by man as being God like.
THE CHRIST.
Before creation was, the Christ walked with the Father God and Mother God in Akasha.
"The Christ is son, the only son begotten by Almighty God, the God of Force and God omniscient, God of thought; and Christ is God, the God of Love.
"Without the Christ there was no light. Through Christ all life was manifest; and so through him all things were done, and naught was done in forming worlds or peopling worlds without the Christ.
"Christ is the Logos of Infinities and through the word alone are Thought and Force made manifest.
"The Son is called the Christ, because the Son, the Love, the universal Love, was set apart, ordained to be creator, Lord, preserver and redeemer of all things, of everything that is, or evermore will be.
"Through Christ, the protoplast, the earth, the plant, the beast, the man, the angel and the cherubim took up their stations on their planes of life.
"Through Christ they are preserved and if they fall it is the Christ who lifts them up; and if they sell themselves to sin the Christ redeems.
"Now Christ, the universal Love, pervades all spaces of infinity, and so there is no end to love.
"From the great heart of Love unnumbered spirits were sent forth to demonstrate the height, the depth, the width, the boundlessness of Love.
"To every world and star and moon and sun a master spirit of this Love divine was sent; and all were full anointed with the oil of helpfulness, and each became a Christ.
"All glorious in his majesty is Christ, who spread the pure white robe of Love o'er all the planes of earth--The Christ of earth, its heaven, its graves.
"In course of time the protoplast, the earth, the plant, the beast, the man sold out their birthrights unto sin; but Christ was present to redeem.
"Hid in the holiest place in all infinities is locked the scroll that bears the record of the purposes of God, the Triune God, and there we read:
"Perfection is the ultimate of life. A seed is perfect in its embryotic life, but it is destined to unfold, to grow.
"Into the soil of every plane these seeds, which were the Thoughts of God, were cast-the seeds of protoplast, of earth, of plant, of beast, of man, of angel and of cherubim, and they who sowed the seeds, through Christ, ordained that they should grow, and should return at last, by effort of unnumbered years, to the great granary of thought, and each be a perfection of its kind.
"And in the boundless blessedness of Love the man was made the Lord of protoplast of earth, of plant, of beast; and Christ proclaimed: Man shall have full dominion over everything that is upon these planes of life; and it was so.
"And he who gave the lordship unto man declared that he must rule by Love.
"But men grew cruel and they lost their power to rule, and protoplast, and earth, and plant and beast became at enmity with man; he lost his heritage; but Christ was present to redeem.
"But man had lost his consciousness of right; he could no longer comprehend the boundlessness of Love; he could see naught but self, and things of self; but Christ was there to seek the lost and save.
"So that he might be close to man in all the ways of life, that man might comprehend the mighty spirit of the Love, the Christ of earth made manifest to human eyes and ears by taking his abode in some pure person, well prepared by many lives to be a fit abiding place of Love.
"Thus Christ made manifest Love's power to save; but, men forgot so soon, and so Christ must manifest again, and then again.
"And ever since man took his place in form of flesh the Christ has been manifest in flesh at first of every age."
5 What relationship existed between Jesus of Nazareth an the Christ? Orthodox Christian ecclesiastics tell us that Jesus of Nazareth and the Christ were one; that the true name of this remarkable person was Jesus Christ. They tell us that this man of Galilee was the very eternal God clothed in flesh of man that men might see his glory. Of course this
p. 9
doctrine is wholly at variance with the teachings of Jesus himself and of his apostles. The Aquarian Masters in council have formulated an answer to this question that so well covers all the information required that we give it in full:
"Jesus was an ideal Jew, born in Bethlehem of Judea. His mother was a beautiful Jewish girl named Mary. As a child Jesus differed but little from other children only that in past lives be had overcome carnal propensities to such an extent that he could be tempted like others and not yield. Paul was right when to the Hebrews he said: 'He was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.'--Hebrews 4:15.
Jesus suffered as other men suffer, and was made perfect through suffering; for this is the only way to perfection. His life was an example of attainment by the way of crosses and cruel treatment. Paul was right again when he said: 'It became him, for whom are all things and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons into glory to make the captain of their salvation perfect through suffering.'--Hebrews 2:10.
"In many respects Jesus was a remarkable child, for by ages of strenuous preparation he was qualified to be an avatar, a saviour of the world, and from childhood he was endowed with superior wisdom and was conscious of the fact that he was competent to lead the race into the higher ways of spiritual living. But he was conscious also of the fact that he must attain the mastery by trials, buffetings, temptations and sufferings. And all his life was spent in attaining. After his death, burial and resurrection he appeared in materialised form before the Silent Brothers in the temple of Heliopolis, in Egypt, and said:
"'My human life was wholly given to bring my will to tune with the deific will; when this was done my earth-tasks all were done.
"'You know that all my life was one great drama for the sons of men; a pattern for the sons of men. I lived to show the possibilities of man.
"'What I have done all men can do, and what I am all men shall be.'"--Aquarian Gospel 178:43, 46.
"Jesus was the name of the man and it was the only appropriate name for this kind of a man. The word means Saviour, and Jesus was in more senses than one a saviour.
The word Christ means "the anointed one," and then it is an official title. It means, The Master of Love. When we say "Jesus the Christ" we refer to the man and to his office; just as we do when we say Edward, the King, or Lincoln, the President. Edward was not always King, and Lincoln was not always President, and Jesus was not always Christ. Jesus won his Christship by a strenuous life, and in the Aquarian Gospel, chapter 65, we have a record of the events of his christing, or receiving the degree Christ. Here is where he was coronated by the highest earth authorities as the Christ-King; properly speaking, 'The Master of Love'; and after this was done he entered at once upon his Judean and Galilean ministry.
"We recognise the facts that Jesus was man and that Christ was God, so that in very truth Jesus the Christ was the God-man of the ages."
The Nazarene's Testimony. Jesus himself made the matter clear. Once when he was speaking to a congregation in Bethany the people called him King and he stood forth and said:
"'I am not sent to sit upon a throne to rule as Cæsar rules; and you may tell the ruler of the Jews that I am not a claimant for his throne.
"'Men call me Christ, and God has recognised the name; but Christ is not a man. The Christ is universal Love, and Love is King.
"'This Jesus is but man who has been fitted by temptations overcome, by trials multiform, to be the temple through which the Christ can manifest to men.
"'Then hear, you men of Israel, hear I Look not upon the flesh; it is not king. Look to the Christ within who shall be formed in every one of you, as he is formed in me.
"'When you have purified your hearts by faith, the king will enter in and you will see his face.'"--Aquarian Gospel 68:10-14.
p. 10
Surely this question has been answered. Jesus was man; Christ was Divine Love-the Love of God, and after thirty years of strenuous life the man had made his body fit to be the temple of the holy breath and Love took full possession, and John well said when he declared:
"'And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld the glory of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.'"
In the Triune nature of God represented sybolically by the cross, God the Father is the vertical staff, the unmanifest absolute nature of God which never changes and is always stable in nature.
God the Mother the manifest is represented by the horizontal moving outward from the stable nature of stillness and God the Son is the nature of spirit which lives both in the unmanifest and in the manifest and is the part of God that is experienced. It is the unconditional nature of god that supports all experiences of nature and God within nature. The thread that connects life to the unmanifest, the thread that connects all life to itself.
Love, christed love is not a feeling tho it can be sensed through feelings of any kind.
Christed love is not bound to circumstance, it is beyond circumstance, it is beyond any single example or collection of examples, it is immortal and not bound by mortality and the attachments to scenarios interpreted by man as being God like.
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